


baby, i got a plan

by usernicole



Series: last best thing [1]
Category: One Direction (Band), Radio 1 RPF
Genre: (as in they don't make out or anything omg they're babies i'm sorry), (as in they're actual kids in this fic), Childhood Friends AU, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-29
Updated: 2014-04-29
Packaged: 2018-01-21 05:02:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,802
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1538585
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/usernicole/pseuds/usernicole
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nick Grimshaw is thirteen years old. He's got a dog, a bag, and a plan. And now, apparently, he's got a Louis as well.</p>
            </blockquote>





	baby, i got a plan

**Author's Note:**

> this is a part of a bigger au i've had bouncing around in my head a while that i think about sometimes where nick and louis grow up together, based on a lot of songs i listened to as an angsty teenager. it doesn't really amount to anything, but it was fun to write. (also i apologize for the amount of daddy issues i tend to project onto the things i write, like, wow. okay nicole. tell it to ur diary)
> 
> BIG THANKS TO [TOMLINGALORE](http://www.tomlingalore.tumblr.com) over on tumblr who britpicked this for me, and MY GOOD FRIEND [ALEXIS](http://www.synecdoki.tumblr.com) who read over it even tho she isn't in this fandom
> 
> title's from Runaway by Kanye West haha i'm hilarious
> 
> hope u like ittttt

“What the hell are you doing?” Louis asks loudly, tiny face peeking over the fence dividing their gardens.

Nick jumps, dropping the heavy dufflebag he’s carrying. “Shhh!” Nick says, looking around wildly. It’s the middle of the night, why the hell Louis is out in his garden “Keep it down, brat!”

“What’s going on?” Louis demands, “Why are you carrying bags? Are you going somewhere?”

“Shut. up.” Nick says, bending over to pick up his bag. Puppy shuffles up behind him, lead loosely wrapped around his wrist. They’re both wearing black hoodies.

“You’re taking Puppy?” Louis narrows his eyes. “You’re running away, aren’t you?”

“Yes!” Nick whisper-yells in the darkness. “So if you could just bugger off--”

“Why?” Louis interrupts, bobbing slightly where he is no doubt standing on his tiptoes.

“I’m joining the circus,” Nick says sarcastically, moving to leave out the garden gate.

“Well, you definitely look the part,” Louis says, following him down and meeting him at the sidewalk. “But really, why?” Louis moves closer, looking carefully up at Nick’s face. His eyes are very wide and very blue, and Nick for some reason feels a lump in his throat. “Have you been  crying ?” 

There’s an undercurrent of glee in Louis’ voice that Nick doesn’t want to deal with. He roughly scrubs his face with his arm. “Shut up, I’m not.”

“You  are ,” Louis says gleefully. “You’re crying, and you’re always calling  me the baby--”

“You  are  a baby.”

“What’s wrong? Did you finally realize your hair looks stupid? Did you get your dumb ipod taken away? Did your mom throw out your fake glasses again--”

“I like  boys ,” Nick blurts suddenly, and Louis’ mouth snaps shut. “I like boys. And I don’t like football. And I’m failing maths and my arsehole brother is coming to visit tomorrow and I  know he’ll be horrible and I miss my sister and--” He stops, taking deep breaths. “I just have to go.” He starts walking again, snuffling loudly. Louis pauses for a moment, then starts walking after him.

“Well, that’s stupid, football’s the greatest thing on earth,” he says, but he doesn’t stop walking. There’s a few moments of silence, and Nick wonders when Louis is going to just give up and go back home already, when Louis speeds up and stops directly in front of him. 

“You like boys?” he asks, and Nick steps determinately around him, Puppy trailing after. Louis just keeps following him. “Like,  like-like ?”

Nick rolls his eyes. “Ugh. Leave me alone.”

“Like, if you had the chance, you  would kiss a boy?”

Nick stops, shoulders slumping. “Yes, Nick says. “I’m...gay, or whatever. You happy?” Louis doesn’t move. Puppy sniffs around, winding her leash around NIck’s legs. Nick’s about to tell Louis to go home, but he’s stopped by Louis blurting “Wait here.”

“What--” Nick sputters, but Louis is already gone. Nick stands, stunned. His first instinct is to leave and get as far away as he can before Louis comes back, but he waits instead, blaming the decision on how Puppy has tangled herself impossibly in his legs. Ten minutes later and Nick is about to get going when Louis emerges out of the darkness, out of breath with a large backpack bouncing heavily on his back.

Nick is, impossibly, even more confused than he’d been before. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“I”m coming with you,” Louis says. He’s wearing the look he gets when he wants something and will absolutely not let up until you give it to him. 

“Uh, no you’re not,” Nick says.

“Yes, I am,” he replies easily, hitching the backpack higher on his shoulder. “ Someone  needs to make sure you don’t do anything stupid.”   


“You’re  eleven .”

“ You’re  thirteen, and last weekend you ate so much chocolate you ended up puking in your mum’s daffodils.”

“It was  Easter , it’s allowed!” Nick protests, then shakes his head and starts walking again. “Go home, Louis. Your mum’ll be worried.”

“My mum has enough to deal with, doesn’t she? Two bratty girls with two  more bratty girls on the way. The  last  thing she needs is me around mucking things up.” There’s a bitter note to his voice that has Nick stopping, looking at him questioningly, but Louis barrels on. “I’m  much more needed here. Besides, Puppy likes me better.” Puppy barks at their feet, tail wagging, and Nick sighs. He thinks about when he made the decision to run away in the first place, sitting alone in his room listening to Drake and feeling lonely. Louis isn’t the person he would have chosen to join him on this adventure, but Nick hates being alone more than anything in the world. He can deal.

“Whatever,” Nick says. “I guess you could come if you want. Do you have any money?”

“I brought all my leftover birthday money,” Louis declares proudly. “ And I picked up some food.”

“Well aren’t you resourceful,” Nick mutters.

“That’s right,” Louis says proudly. “What are we doing now? Where are we supposed to go?”

“Well, uh,” Nick says. “I was just going to get on the bus.” And then get off when he’d gotten as far as he could. Planning isn’t one of Nick’s strong points. 

“And then what are we supposed to do? Where are we supposed to sleep?” God, Grim, what would you have done without me? You would have been completely fucked.”   


“Please stop swearing. You sound like Mickey Mouse.”

“Better than sounding like an arsehole,” he responds, and Nick snorts. They reach the small shelter of the bus stop and Nick leads them in, dropping heavily on the bench inside.

“Well, what would  you rather do? How do you suppose we run away then? Just walk really fast?” Nick says, sighing in relief as he lets his heavy bag drop at his feet. Louis shrugs, sitting beside him and crossing his arms. Nick huffs, “Then don’t complain, idiot. You’re lucky I’m letting you come at all.” Puppy jumps up and curls in the space between them. 

“How much money do you have?” Louis asks, leaning slightly into Nick’s shoulder. Nick supposes it’s pretty late and Louis must be tired. He has no clue why Louis was outside in the first place.

“About a hundred quid,” Nick replies. “I broke into my record player savings.”

Louis snorts. “You’re such a hipster. Who uses record players anymore?” Nick just pushes him gently with his shoulder in response.They sit quietly for a while, Puppy snoring between them.

“God,” Nick says, breaking the silence. “When is the bus going to come?”

“Did you bother looking at the schedule?” Louis drawls and Nick freezes. Louis sighs, bending over to rummage through his backpack where it rests at his feet. “Looks like we’re going to have to wait then.” He pulls out a small fleece blanket covered in pictures of Tinkerbell and some other strange fairies Nick doesn’t know. 

At Nick’s snickering, Louis rolls his eyes, “Shut up, it’s Fizzy’s. She didn’t want it anymore because it doesn’t have Periwinkle.” Nick nods solemnly, like he knows who the hell Periwinkle is. Louis throws the blanket over the two of them and hunches so he can pull it up to his chin. Nick hesitates, but lets himself snuggle into the blanket as well. It’s been a long day, and he’s apparently now homeless.

“When the bus comes,” Louis says sleepily, “what would be the place you would want it to take you to the most in the world?”

“Like, anywhere?” Nick asks, resting his head on Louis’. “Like, even over the sea and all that?”

“You could take the bus to the moon if you wanted to,” Louis giggles. “You could take a bus to Mars.”

Nick thinks for a moment. “London,” he says finally. “I’d take the bus to London.”

“I just told you you could take the bus to  Pluto if you wanted to and you choose to take it to London.” Louis shakes his head, dislodging Nick, who frowns in response. 

“I’d have it take me right up to Radio 1,” Nick continues wistfully. “I’m not old enough to have my own show, but I can work my way up, right? I can make a decent coffee. File and all that.” Louis doesn’t respond, and Nick’s afraid he’s fallen asleep. He’s about to poke Louis rudely, now liking the idea of waiting alone, when Louis starts talking.

“I can’t pick just one place,” Louis says softly. “I would want to go everywhere. America, China, Switzerland--”

“ Switzerland ?”

“Switzerland. I’d hijack the bus and drive to the Amazon. I’d go see the pyramids. Everything.” There’s a moment of silence and Nick nudges him.

“Well, you can  drop me off in London, then, and buy me all sorts of expensive souvenirs on your travels.” Louis laughs.

“You act like we can actually go to these places.”

“Well, why not?” Nick yelps, startling Louis and waking Puppy. “Why  can’t  we go and do all this? See the pyramids and all that?” Nick waves his hands wildly, “what happened to...to  Disney ?”

“Disney?” Louis asks, looking confused.

“Disney!” Nick says, though he doesn’t quite look like he knows what he’s talking about either. “What happened to--to disney and to like, following your dreams and all that? Why is it all ‘be realistic’ and--and ‘do as your told’ and ‘try out for the football’ and ‘learn from your brother.” He flounders, dropping his hands into his lap. Louis pulls the blanket back up to his shoulders.

“Is your brother really that bad?” Louis asks, snuggling closer to Nick and resting his chin on Nick’s shoulder. Nick shrugged, because Andy isn’t really. He’s just kind of overbearing, and he always makes gay jokes around Nick, like he’s trying to make a point. And Nick  hates proving him right. Louis moves back and slumps so they’re shoulder-to-shoulder, eyes fluttering closed.

“I’m not actually my sisters’ real brother,” he says after a moment, not opening his eyes. Nick moves away, gaping down at Louis. 

“Don’t be stupid,” Nick huffs, reaching down to scratch Puppy behind the ears.

“No, I’m actually not,” Louis says, finally opening his eyes and looking frustrated. “Mark’s not my real dad, they told me a couple weeks ago.”

There’s an awkward silence while Nick processes the information. “That,” Nick tugs at his hair, “that doesn’t make sense. You have the same last name.”

“That’s because he  adopted me , idiot,” Louis snaps. “When I was little. My  real  dad didn’t want me so Mark adopted me.”

Nick frowns. He remembers Louis when he was little, all big blue eyes and bowl cut. He can’t imagine anyone not wanting that Louis. “It’s weird hearing you call Mark Mark,” Nick says. “But if he adopted you, that means  he wanted you, right? That means  he’s  your real dad.”

“No, it doesn’t!” Louis yells suddenly, standing up, fists clenched angrily. “It means he wanted my  mum and he just had to deal with me, and now he’s got his own kids and what good am I?” He clutches at the bottom of his shirt, and Nick tugs him gently back down onto the bench, throwing the Tinkerbell blanket back over them both.

“But, I mean,” Nick says, swallowing, “you went this long without noticing he wasn’t your real dad, why does knowing this make it different?” He doesn’t know how to deal with this. He’s always liked Mark, as much as you can like your next door neighbor. “What was your name before you were Louis Tomlinson?”

“Louis Austin, apparently.” Nick wrinkles his nose. “Exactly!” Louis cries, pushing his hands up over his eyes. “I’m Louis  the Tommo Tomlinson. What am I supposed to be now?”

“Well, to be fair,  the Tommo has always been a stupid name.” 

“Shut up,” Louis says, but there’s no bite to it. “Maybe he wanted me back then, when it was just me, but now he’s got Lottie and Fizz, and the new babies. And there I am and I keep getting in trouble and I’m no help to my mum and what if when the girls are older--” He swallows, and Nick realizes, horrified, that his eyes are a bit glassy.

“No,” Nick says, pulling Louis into his side frantically, arm over his shoulders, “only one of us gets to cry tonight and it’s already been me.”

“Why are you the only one who gets to cry?” Louis says, voice muffled where his face is pressed into Nick’s shoulder. Nick ignores him.

He huffs, frustrated. “I don’t--I don’t know what to say, but I think you’re wrong about Mark not wanting you.” Louis moves to protest but Nick just squishes his face back into his shoulder. “But it doesn’t matter now,” Nick says determinately, and Louis moves back to look up at him, “because we’re running away, right?” Louis nods, and Nick nods back, though he’s beginning to realize this whole running away business was a stupid decision, and this bus isn’t ever going to come probably. “We’ll run away and I’ll be on the radio, and you’ll be off wherever doing god knows what.” Louis laughs, and Nick hitches the blanket up so they’re covered better. “It’ll be great,” Nick says, and yawns, and feels Louis sigh next to him. Nick pokes about in his pockets and pulls out his ipod, tiredly offering Louis an earbud. Louis takes it, and they sit, listening to whatever comes on shuffle, waiting for the bus to arrive.

They wake up to someone coughing pointedly in front of them. Nick jolts, elbowing Louis in the face, causing Louis to cry out, and Puppy stands up in their laps, barking wildly. There’s a police officer standing in front of them, eyeing them disapprovingly. Nick grabs Puppy around her stomach and tries to shut her up.

“Are you Nick Grimshaw and Louis Tomlinson?” the officer asks, eyebrows raised as though he already knows the answer to his question.

“Yes,” Nick says sadly, at the same time Louis barks out “No!”   


The officer sighs and gestures for them to follow him. Louis glares defiantly and refuses to move even as Nick quickly begins to gather their things, duffle bag under one arm and Puppy under the other. “Come on,” he says quietly, nudging Louis with his foot, and Louis reluctantly picks up his backpack and trails after Nick to the awaiting police car.

Once they’re all in the car, Puppy still softly growling at the officer, Nick looks over to Louis, who is looking angrily out the window and completely avoiding Nick.

“You can’t have thought we would actually get away with it,” Nick says, poking Louis in the side. “We only had like, a hundred quid between us.”

“We could have tried,” Louis says, still not looking at Nick. Nick slumps, arms curling tighter around Puppy. They don’t say anything until they reach the police station.

“Your parents are going to come pick you up soon,” the officer says, sitting them down in two uncomfortable office chairs. “Don’t move, and don’t let your dog run around.”

“I hope Puppy pees  all over their desks ,” Louis mutters, and Nick has to muffle his snort, but they don’t talk other than that. Eventually the silence is broken by Louis’ dad almost running in, looking frazzled.

“ Lou! ,” he says, relieved, dropping down to his knees to hug Louis around the shoulders. “What were you  thinking ? Your mum and I woke up and you were  gone .”

“Get! Off! Me!” Louis says, wriggling out of his dad’s grasp. Once he’s free, he just picks up his backpack and starts stomping passed his dad. “Let’s just go.”

“ Louis ,” Mark says, sounding exasperated. He turns to Nick. “Hello, Nick. I’m going to be taking you home as well, if that’s okay?”

It’s not, but Nick just shrugs. “Okay,” he says, picking up his stuff and setting Puppy down so she can walk.

By the time the get into the car, Louis is practically vibrating with anger. Nick doesn’t even know what he’s angry about, but he makes a point to sit as far away as humanly possible in the back seat. 

“Nick, your parents were really worried,” Mark says, looking back at them in the rearview mirror. Nick rolls his eyes. Not worried enough to bother picking him up, apparently. “And Louis, your mum is very disappointed. It’s not right to scare her so much right before the babies are born.”   


“Okay,  Mark ,” Louis snaps, not looking away from where he had focused again on the car window. “Whatever you say.”

Mark sighs, pulling out of the police station’s car park. The drive back is tense, and by the time they reach their street Nick has worked himself into a panic. He doesn’t want to deal with what his dad will say, or what his brother will say later when he arrives. He doesn’t want to deal with his mum’s disappointment, or the gentle chiding Jane will give him later on over the phone. He wishes Louis’ magic bus existed, and that he could be in London, waving Louis off as he sets off to travel the world.

Louis’ dad parks, and Louis is out of the car like a shot. Mark sighs, and turns to Nick. “You’ll be alright getting home by yourself, right?” Nick refrains from rolling his eyes, it’s not like he doesn’t live next door or anything. He nods, and Mark sighs, getting out and helping Nick with his bag. 

He waits while Nick walks the ten steps to his own front door, waving when Nick looks back, and Nick gulps before knocking. The door is immediately opened and he’s engulfed in a huge hug, his mum rambling loudly about being angry but also worried but also  angry while Nick’s dad stands not far away, silent but openly disapproving, and Nick closes his eyes, letting himself be overcome by the tidal wave that is his family.

Later on, much later, when Nick is lying in his room, mourning the loss of his ipod and his freedom in general to the wrath of his mum, there’s a bang on his window. 

He jumps, looking around in the darkness. He’s about to call for his mum when there’s another bang, and he walks to his window to see Louis hanging out of his. 

It’s weird he hadn’t noticed how close Louis’ room was in relation to his, but there Louis is, holding what looks to be a Barbie’s head, poised to throw at Nick’s window. Nick quickly opens it. 

“What the  hell do you think you’re doing?” Nick whisper-yells, leaning out the window with his hands on the windowsill. Louis shakes his head, pushing a finger over his mouth to shush Nick, and gestures for Nick to move. 

Nick moves out of the way, not particularly wanting to be pelted with the disembodied limbs of dolls, when a walkie-talkie soars gracefully through the window and into his room. Nick picks it up, confused, and looks out his window only to see Louis is gone. His eyebrows furrow, and he’s about to look for something he could throw at  Louis’ window to get his attention, when there’s a loud crackling sound and Louis’ voice comes through the speaker of the walkie-talkie in his hand.

“ Sick, isn’t it?”  Louis says, and Nick runs to grab the thing from where he’d thrown it across his room in shock.

“Why couldn’t you have just talked to me through the window like a  normal person?” Nick responds, turning the volume down on the walkie-talkie so his family can’t hear if they happened to come check on him.

“ This is cooler, isn’t it?” Louis says indignantly. “ How long are you in for?” 

Nick sighs. “Indefinitely. My dad  hates  me.”

“ I’ve just got till the end of the week,”  Louis says proudly. “ My mum’s all weepy because of the babies, and once I pulled the puppy eyes out she was putty in my hands. ”

“There’s something wrong with using your pregnant mother that way,” Nick says, but shrugs it off and slumps back onto his bed. “So...what’s up?”

Louis snorts over the line. “ Bored as anything, what do you think?”  There’s a pause, and Nick’s about to say something else when Louis comes over the line again. “ Is your brother there? ”

Nick groans. “Yeah, he’s here.” And he’d laughed harder than Nick had ever seen him laugh before when his mum told him the story of Nick’s attempted runaway. “ Can’t do anything right, can you Nicky?”  he’d said, ruffling Nick’s hair in the way that he  hated . “ Barely got to the bloody bus stop.”

“ Sucks ,” Louis says, conversationally. They fall into silence after that, soft static of the walkie-talkie creaking comfortingly between them.

“Hey Louis,” Nick says, “what if your magic bus was real? Where do you think you’d be right now?”   


Louis doesn’t answer right away, and Nick blushes, afraid he’s just humiliated himself, when Louis answers. “ I don’t know,”  he says, and Nick could picture him shrugging. “ It’d suck to go by myself. ”

Nick sits, staring up at his ceiling, and says, “Maybe, if it were real, I could have gone with you.”

“ What about the radio?”  Louis says, and Nick hums.

“Not like they could give me a job right now,” he says, “juvenile delinquent and all. Been to the police station and everything. Best wait until this whole runaway business is behind me.”

There’s a long silence, and then Louis says,  “Well, I  guess you’re not too bad, as far as travelling partners go. ” They’re silent again, and Nick can’t think of anything else to talk about, when Louis suddenly says “ You know what you should do? You should prank him. ”

It takes a minute for Nick to realize who Louis is talking about, and then he thinks about it. “I’m rubbish at pranking,” he confesses. “I’m not sneaky at all.”

“ Well, luckily, you’re speaking with the Master of Pranks .”

“What do you think you’re going to do when you can’t even leave your room, let alone come over to my house?”

“ I’ll talk you through it. Come on, Nick, it’ll be fun!”

Nick sighs and thinks about how his punishment doesn’t have a set end date already and goes, “Alright, what do you have in mind then?”

There’s a loud cheer over the walkie-talkie, and Nick grins, rolling over and listening attentively to Louis’ elaborate plan, providing details when necessary, late into the night.

The next day, Nick runs Andy’s prized model of a Porsche made out of soap under a hot tap, sprays shaving cream all in his shoes, hides all of his socks in his mum’s daffodils, and tells Louis all about it at night through their walkie-talkies.

It’s the beginning of a beautiful partnership.

**Author's Note:**

> [tumblr!>](http://super-liam.tumblr.com)


End file.
